It is a goosebump-inducing moment when, on Women’s Carnival Day, the entire city counts down the seconds only to erupt precisely at 11:11 a.m.

For six days, the revellers can give free rein to their Rhineland passion for celebration wherever the opportunity arises. An intense outburst of joie de vivre - in the streets and in every pub of the city and the quarters. The carnival hits proclaim with sentimental fervour how noble-hearted the Cologne people truly are and even the most conservative bourgeois rediscovers his human side. 

An exceptional state that some adore, while non-Rhinelanders are often completely overwhelmed by it.

Having deeply internalised these traits while at the same time viewing everything from a grown spatial distance is, at times, quite an ambivalent experience.

But the most wonderful thing is to let yourself drift through the throng and capture all those blissful moments.
A kind of intoxication, as well…